Project Log: Morghasts and Dread Abyssal

Morghast Armor
 

The issue with the Morghasts' helmets has been resolved. I drilled a hole in the back of the skull, aligning it along the angle of the helmet plate.

 

 

With a drop of glue, I attached the pin to the helmet. Once the glue set, I covered the pin with a layer of putty.

 

 

The putty conceals the pin, and adds a little more stability to the attachment point. Viola! Removable helmets!

 

 

The shoulder and chest armor are all attached to a painting stick so they can be sprayed and painted in a single batch.

 

 

All that remains is the wings and feet. I'm currently working on a couple scenic pieces to use as perches. The Morghasts' toes will be modified to fit around the perch and the spirits will be removed from the wings.

Dread Abyssal Assembly

Because the Dread Abyssal that Nagash's Mortarchs ride has an anatomy similar to the Morghasts, I am assembling it, so they can all be painted as a single batch. Despite the complexity of this model, it goes together pretty well.

I don't rememer if I've brought it up on this blog before, but I think the days of simply assembling a GW model and painting it as a single piece are over (for the larger ones, at least). There are so many overlapping pieces used to create the depth of detail that it is impossible to paint the visible areas in the interior once fully assembled.

 

Undead Seahorse?

The tail and pelvis and the two body halves will need to be kept separate so I can get at all the little skulls inside.

 

 

The legs have three main parts, the interior and the outer covers. Again, the covers need to be left off so the inner skulls can be painted. At the end of the day, I think this model will be in nine pieces when I paint it, and that's not even counting the spirits, heads, armor, and rider.

 

 

One neat feature is that the forelimbs of the monster offer a lot of posing options. The upper arm attaches with a peg which allows the shoulder to rotate...

 

 

And the elbow joins are a working hinge.

 

 

So, even though the monster's back legs are locked in a single position it's front legs can have a wide range of poses, and it looks like the head can swivel a bit on the ball-and-socket joint. If you're fortunate enough to have three kits so you can field all three Mortarchs, you can make subtle changes in the pose so they don't all look like they're riding identical monsters.

 

 

I'm still debating how to attach this guy to his base– whether to use the spirits he comes with to hold him aloft, or to use some gothic scenery as a monster perch. I guess we'll see how things shape up as the project continues to evolve.

--Til next time!